If you didn’t see Dr M extreme botany quiz check it out here before reading on… If you did see it, and had a go, then check out the solutions below: #1 the botany hat – this is an intriguing one to be sure! Dr M obtained this hat from a much-traveled colleague when he previously worked at Wye College. Dr M himself was uncertain
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At last the wonderful botanical outreach project #wildflowerhour has hit Dr M’s fav family – the Poaceae with the #grasschallenge for Sunday 23rd June 2019! To celebrate, Dr M popped into his garden and plucked some grasses from his Poaceae-rich #nomow lawn. Without really trying, Dr M returned with a big bunch of grasses and then set about trying to photograph them in the
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It’s no secret that Dr M is raving potty about Poaceae so imagine his delight when he saw the new and wonderful @Wildflowerhour also getting into the Poaceous groove with their #grasschallenge! This time of year (June) is truly wondrous for Poaceae (but not hay fever sufferers!) as the vegetative shoots spring into action and come alive with flowering inflorescences bearing those strange yet magical
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Dr M’s favourite place in Reading is the Oxfam music shop in the Town centre where you can find, amongst others, second hand CDs, vinyls and sheet music aplenty. A visit this sunny saturday yielded nothing especially tempting and so Dr M journeyed across the road to the Oxfam bookshop were he was intrigued by a copy of Gerard’s herbal in the glass cabinet reserved
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As you no doubt know, Dr M is particularly fond of Poaceae, and was therefore especially delighted to see that the species recovery trust has a brand new grass ID quiz for all to test their Poaceous knowledge! So, they ask, how many UK native grasses can you identify? Are you a Giant Fescue or a Hairy Brome? 40 questions to test, tease and entertain. Have
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Dr M says: It’s that time of year again! Last year’s University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity students (class of 2015 pictured above) are just about finishing their dissertations and we are already wishing them well as they get ready to move on to botanical pastures new, while the class of 2016 are soon to be on their way to Reading for a new exciting
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Tried Dr M’s Poaceae quiz? If not have a go here… then check the answers below… Some common grasses can be ID’d quite easily e.g. Dactylis glomerata (Cock’s-foot) which can often be reliably identified from 100 paces and definitely a species to ID from a moving vehicle at speed! Other grasses can only really be ID’d to genus from a photo and some only
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Dr M says: Your patience is rewarded and here at last is Part the Second of Dr M’s long-awaited Poaceae quiz! Grasses, so the Poaceae song goes, and as Dr M’s students on University of Reading MSc Plant Diversity know well, have “flowers reduced to spikelets strange yet magical”. The grass spikelet is indeed a wondrous thing and has an intrinsic beauty and fascination
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Ah, the English Summer, that time of uncertain sunshine and certain hay fever! Hay fever or not, regular visitor to these pages will know that Dr M is particularly fond of grasses – or Poaceae or Graminea or whatever you like to call them! And to celebrate all that is green wonderful Dr M’s first Poaceae ID quiz is coming to these pages –
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eXtreme botany heads North to Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre with Dr M and University of Reading Plant Diversity MSc students, this is #4 of Dr M’s MalHam Diary. Day 4 Tuesday: eXtreme Limestone Pavement day at Ingleborough National Nature Reserve! A day in which we witness Dr M’s gryke falls, hairy balls and eXtreme Apiaceae not to mention MalHam’s very own Wars of the Sedges,
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